Designing A Custom Printed Tent Canopy

Kick Ass Media | Guide to Custom Printed Tents

Canadian Custom Printed Canopies and Awnings

Canadian custom printed canopies and awnings forge a bond between a customer and brand through an immersive and memorable experience. Not only do they stand out from afar, but they also invite people inside to engage with your products and brand ambassadors. When designing a custom canopy, tent, or awning, our design team considers a variety of factors to better develop event messaging, including:

Understanding Your Audience

Clarifying Your Outcomes

Knowing Your Next Action Steps for Your Audience

Designing with a Clear Voice in Mind

This can be applied to every level of your approach to branding for your event. When it comes to planning your approach to tent design, there’s some key considerations at play to make sure you get the most out of your investment.

10 Things to Consider when Designing a Custom Printed Tent

1) Where is the tent being used?

Inside or outside, in the sun or shade – all of the elements that are around the tent are going to make an impact in the colors, design elements, and size of tent that you’ll want to hit the right mark.

2) What is the goal of your event, and how does the tent fit into that?

Does your event function as a launch, or are you working with an established brand identity? Depending on these factors, you’ll want to make sure that you have the right kind of design that sends the message you want.

3) Do you have enough time to get everything done?

At Kick Ass Media, we work extremely hard to make sure we can meet any deadline, but sometimes planning ahead can help you come up with better quality ideas.

4) What do you want your customer’s experience at the tent to be like?

What do you want a tent visitor to walk away with? What message do you want to send them? Is it a place to make a conversion, or a place to simply give information and awareness?

5) Does your design help create immersive moments?

When a visitor comes to your event display, are you helping them be immersed in your full brand identity to really engage with what you’re trying to share with them? Can you add on to this feeling with custom sides, printed walls, or step and repeats boards?

6) Is your branding visible from a distance, and from other angles?

Sometimes it’s hard to get noticed. Designing the right way can make sure that your investment is eye-catching for the right reasons.

7) How does your tent fit into the layout of your promotional materials and products?

What size and layout is right for your event and message? Is there enough space for everything?

8) Is this tent event-specific, or is it a long term investment?

Designing for generic use or a specific goal can have a huge impact on how you go about laying images out.

9) What information do you need to convey?

What needs to be on the tent, and what needs to be on the other promotional materials? Having a clear strategy means your impact goes up.

10) Is your tent “shareable”?

Is someone going to walk away from your event and tent display wanting to share it on social media? Aim to inspire.

Making Tent and Canopy Design Easy

At Kick Ass Media, our goal is to make sure your path to success is easy. That’s why we can offer help every step of the way. Depending on the tent you choose, we can provide you with design templates to make your layout a breeze.

Beyond that, here’s a few easy pieces of technical information that will get you up and running fast.

Color

When you’re preparing your artwork, make sure your working file and embedded images are print-ready using CMYK color management. RGB images might look good on a screen, but usually don’t transfer well to print, often being way darker or not with the colors you imagined.

Image Quality

Web images are usually 72 dots per inch (dpi), while print images for paper are generally 300 dpi. Even large format printing requires 150 dpi. If you use an image with smaller dpi, it will look fuzzy and unprofessional. This can be fixed by making sure you’re using the right image types (vector is better than raster) and resolution in the first place.

Bleeds and Crop Marks

If your image goes right to the border of what you’re working with, make sure you have a bleed area to make sure there’s no white lines when trimming happens. Also make sure to include crop marks so there’s a guideline for trimming.

Good Guidelines to Always Follow

Always aim to work with vector images and files (AI, EPS, SVG)

Save your files as PDFs

Make sure all your text is outlined

Avoid thin borders around the edge of your artwork

To create a rich black use a mixture of 30% Cyan, 30% Magenta, 60% Yellow and 100% Black – Just black can look weak and show what’s underneath.

Our passion for displays is only outdone by our enthusiasm for elevating your brand identity. Trust marketers across North America – they all choose Kick Ass Media for their complete event branding needs. Our full line up of indoor and outdoor marketing displays is backed up by a team renowned for delivering on time and within budget.